Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/312

 270 THE GUPTA EMPIKE punishment would seem to have been unknown. Per- sons guilty of repeated rebellion, an expression which probably includes brigandage, suffered amputation of the right hand; but such a penalty was exceptional, and judicial torture was not practised. The revenue was mainly derived from the rents of the Crown lands, and the royal officers, being provided with fixed salaries, had no occasion to live on the people. The Buddhist rule of life was generally observed. " Throughout the country," we are told, " no one kills any living thing, or drinks wine, or eats onions or garlic. . . . They do not keep pigs or fowls, there are no dealings in cattle, no butchers' shops or distilleries in their market-places." The Chandala, or outcast tribes, who dwelt apart like lepers, and were required when entering a city or bazaar to strike a piece of wood as a warning of their approach, in order that other folk might not be polluted by contact with them, were the only offenders against the laws of piety (dharma), and the only hunters, fishermen, and butchers. Cowrie shells formed the ordinary currency. The Buddhist monasteries were liberally endowed by royal grants, and the monks received alms without stint, houses, beds, mattresses, food, and clothes were never lacking to them wherever they might go. These particulars, as collected and narrated by the earliest Chinese traveller in India, permit of no doubt that the dominions of Chandragupta Vikramaditya were well governed. The authorities interfered as little as possible with the subject, and left him free to prosper